


We're Not Broken, Just Bent

by alphatalbot



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Relationship Mending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 03:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2213292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphatalbot/pseuds/alphatalbot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brett shows up unexpectedly at Liam's house, and they get along a little better than they both had expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're Not Broken, Just Bent

"You're _sure_ you don't wanna just stay at my place tonight?" Scott asked yet again as he shut his locker. The younger boy nodded.

"It's fine, Scott. It's not the first time my parents are away. I'll probably just ask a friend to come over," Liam replied, adjusting his backpack strap.

Scott sighed reluctantly. "If anything happens..."

"I know, I'll howl," Liam smiled. "Thanks Scott." He quickly took off to find Mason to ask him to come over for the weekend. After pushing through the crowd of people swarming the hallways, he found Mason talking to another freshman... specifically, a freshman boy that he had been going on about for the past three weeks. Smiling to himself, he walked away, letting his best friend have his moment.

* * *

Liam didn't ask anyone to come over; the whole fact that he was a werewolf and hung out with juniors that were of the supernatural, besides Stiles, limited the number of friends he had. Mason was probably his only close freshman friend; Violet and Garrett... he had to constantly remind himself that they were both professional assassins and... well, _dead_. He tossed his bag across the living room, knocking over some magazines onto the floor. He flopped on the couch, not bothering to eat or turn on the TV. He was just plain exhausted from everything. Resting with his arm over his eyes, the doorbell began to ring obnoxiously. Whoever was ringing clearly didn't understand the fact that ringing it once was enough. Throwing himself off the couch, he yanked the door open with a lot more force than he intended to.

"What crawled up your ass and died? I can feel your annoyance rolling off in waves." The person commented before stepping past Liam.

" _Dude_ , get out of my house!" Liam exclaimed, still holding the door open. "Brett, what are you doing here?" Brett ignored him, examining the state of his living room.

"Messy as always," he commented. Liam sighed and shut the door, knowing Brett wasn't going to leave anytime soon.

"I didn't ask you to come evaluate my house," Liam retorted, throwing himself back onto the couch in an unceremonious way. "So, why are you here?"

Sitting down on the floor, cross-legged, he simply replied, "I am sleeping over."

Hearing this, Liam shot up from the couch, slightly alarmed. "What?! _Why_?" The last time Brett stayed over was when Liam was actually in Devenford Prep. They used to be rather close friends. They were on the same team, after all. But literally after Liam was kicked out, they had no contact. However, the whole attempted assassination at the game happened, and the both of them were revealed to be werewolves, and several pack meetings later, Liam believed they were on neutral levels, but definitely still not back to their nearly-best-friends status from before.

"If you haven't noticed, my pack is nearly all gone, and I can't exactly go venturing out to the woods every weekend again," Brett replied wryly, examining the ceramic statues Liam's parents had placed on the bookshelves.

"B-but, why not stay with Scott or someone from your pack? And what about your sister?" Liam demanded, running his fingers through his hair, clearly stressed and confused.

"I hardly know Scott. We've only spoke at pack meetings. And the rest of my pack don't have space," Brett began, not the slightest bit unnerved by Liam's influx of questions.

"Who said I have space?" Liam pointed out.

"Well, I can certainly feel that no one is home right now, and no one will probably be home for a while." Brett sighed. "And my sister... is elsewhere with Satomi. So are you gonna let me crash here for the weekend?"

Reluctantly, he sighed, giving in. "Fine." He rolled his eyes at the... dare he say it...? happiness and relief he felt radiating from Brett.

"Let's see if I still remember where your room is," Brett announced, before turning around and nearly tripping over a box of books. "Shut up, Liam."

Liam actually laughed. "I didn't say anything!" He protested as he followed Brett, who was halfway up the stairs.

"You were about to!" Brett called back. "What's with the piles of books... just about everywhere?"

"Stiles gave them to me. Said they were filled with important werewolf things," Liam shrugged. He hasn't bothered to read most of them. Between school, lacrosse, and pack meetings, he didn't have much time to read the stuff that could be easily taught to him from Scott or Derek.

Brett snorted. "Your room looks like a disaster," he noted. Frowning at him, Liam's eyes surveyed his room and admitted that it wasn't in its best condition.

"It could be worse," Liam reminded him, receiving a cringe from Brett. He had his lacrosse equipment in the corner, and that was probably the only neat section of his room.  
  
Everything else was placed haphazardly. School books and papers were strewn across the floor, and there was a hamper that was flowing with clothes.

"How could you stand sleeping in a place where everything is out of order?" Brett mock shivered to make his point.

"Hey, my room, shut up," Liam defended. He quite liked his room, until he couldn't find something he really needed. "Need anything to eat or drink?"

"Nah, I'm good," Brett flashed him a totally unnecessary smile. Liam made a face as he sat down on his bed. An awkward silence ensued. What was Brett thinking coming here? It wasn't like they could pretend that Liam didn't completely destroy their coach's car with a damn crowbar. It wasn't like they had something to talk about. It wasn't like the old times, where they had easy conversations about lacrosse and their friends. It just wasn't.

"You okay? Your heartbeat is increasing ridiculously fast, and your eyes..." Brett commented, concern laced in his voice.

Surprised at the amount of concern present in his tone, Liam forced himself to breathe. It took a few minutes but he managed to calm his heartbeat. Scott recommended that Liam should find an anchor, but he couldn't seem to find something to latch on. Whenever he got fits of anger, or just started freaking out, Scott and Stiles would occasionally have to hold him down until the emotions subsided. But this... this was different.

"I'm fine," Liam lied, a little shakily. "Still relatively new to... everything." Brett looked at him, and his eyes softened, understanding.

"Got an anchor at least?" Brett asked curiously. Liam snorted as he shook his head. Eyebrows rising, Brett looked surprised. "That was pretty impressive though, no anchor." Liam laughed softly, still unsure of how to deal with this whole situation. "What got you all huffy though?"

"Nothing," Liam responded quickly, a bit too quickly. Brett took this as a sign that he didn't want to talk and backed off. "I'm gonna get a drink of water. Sure you don't need anything?"

Brett nodded. Liam exited the room quickly, eager to get out of the room. Heading to the kitchen, he grabbed a glass of water when he heard a loud crash from upstairs.

"Hey! I know you're like 6'3" and pretty intimidating to most people, but refrain from destroying my room!" Liam shouted. He could hear Brett's soft laughter and then some awkward sounding strings being plucked. Frowning, he quickly downed the water and rushed back upstairs, only to find Brett sitting on his bed with his guitar, which had been on a high shelf in his closet.

"Sounds awful," Liam remarked, only to receive a glare from Brett.

"It's out of tune," Brett accused, and promptly began to tune and occasionally pluck each string. Liam settled into his spinning chair, bored, and decided to watch Brett mess with his guitar. "Two things. One, since when do you play the guitar? Two, stop staring at me; flattering, but very disturbing," Brett asked without looking up.

Sighing, Liam spun the other way, looking at the not-so-beautiful view of the street outside. "Got it for fun, never really picked up on it. I learned like three chords and gave up."

Another pregnant silence followed and it was driving Liam crazy. Just when he was about to say something amazingly witty to break the silence, a strum echoed throughout the room.

Liam turned his chair around again, to find an ecstatic Brett. "Please don't tell me you're gonna start singing."

Brett rolled his eyes. "Singing, no, _although_ some people have told me I have a great voice." Liam rolled his eyes. Of course people had told him that. "But... you're gonna have to deal with me playing this thing for the next few hours." Liam groaned, but honestly, he was actually pretty excited to listen to his... ~~friend?~~ fellow werewolf play a guitar.

"Didn't even know you played," Liam admitted. Brett shrugged. "I began... maybe a year ago." He began playing a song that Liam didn't recognize but it sounded soothing. He mindlessly spun in his seat while Brett concentrated on the guitar. He wasn't sure how many songs he played, but after a few minutes, he heard Brett singing under his breath as he played. He was never going to admit it but he sounded amazing.

Then, the house phone downstairs rang, interrupting the peaceful mood that had settled over two of them. Liam got up to run downstairs to answer, and Brett stopped playing the guitar, sighing.

Peeking his head back into the room, Liam remarked, "You lied. You said you wouldn't sing," and darted downstairs. He heard Brett's laugh echo as he grabbed the phone before it could go to voicemail.

"Liam speaking," he answered, silently chiding himself for not going for like a simple greeting like 'hello.'

"Hi dear, it's your mom. Just wanted to call and check up on you. All good on food, any friends over?"

"Hey mom, and yeah, I'm good. I have Brett over," Liam answered, and then realizing what had slipped out. There was a long silence.

"Brett... as in Brett Talbot from..." his mom trailed off, not wanting to mention his old school.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Promise there will be absolutely nothing violent going down between the two of us. We're friends," Liam wasn't sure if he was trying to convince his mom or himself.

"Alright... take care. Don't stay up too late."

"Mom, it's a Friday night."

" _Liam_."

"Alright! Love you, Mom." With that, he hung up, and turned around to go back upstairs, and nearly felt his heart stop. "Jesus, what the hell? Has no one ever told you to not sneak up on people because the heart attack that follows isn't enjoyable?"

Brett was standing there, looking amused. "We're friends?"

"Stop eavesdropping!"

"Does it even count as eavesdropping? We can hear everything for like a mile," Brett reminded. "You said we're friends. Are we?"

This was _exactly_ the topic that Liam didn't want to talk about. "If you want us to be? I understand after that whole situation back at Devenford completely destroyed a ton of things, not just coach's car. I understand that you probably still hate me for doing that, and things will probably never be the same again, but-"

"Okay, woah, calm down. Breathe," Brett commanded. Liam paused, inhaling deeply. He felt his heart pounding heavily again. "Is this what you were all worked up about earlier? Because you don't need to worry about this anymore. Probably ridiculous of me to say since I told you that we would destroy you back at the game, but we have bigger problems like a deadpool to worry about. I'm not gonna hang myself over a minor thing like that. May still have some feelings about that event, but seriously, Liam, don't beat yourself up about that."

"Really?" Liam asked in a small voice.

"Yeah, really," Brett answered after a while.

The relief that washed over Liam was great. It didn't wash away every ounce of guilt and terror he felt about what he did, but it helped... a lot. "So we're good?"

Brett laughed, and Liam took it as a yes. He moved forward to give him a hug, not really thinking.

"Woah, not big on the hugging," Brett backed up, nearly falling over the pile of books again. Smiling, Liam nodded.

* * *

Liam had given him the spare room next to his. The room smelled a lot like Liam, not that it was bad, just different. He was glad that they managed to somewhat mend their friendship on a greater level, but he knew that deep down, that event would never really be erased. They could be friends again, but it'll always be there, that little rupture in friendship, whether either of them wanted it or not.

Glancing at the clock's bright red numbers, he realized it was already 3:18 a.m. Both of them had spent some time meditating in the living room, a way that Brett himself found effective for controlling the shift. Liam wasn't quite good at it, but he was getting there.

Staring up at the ceiling, he couldn't really sleep. He hasn't slept in a while honestly. He was afraid. He didn't show it, but deep down, he was afraid of the deadpool and feared for his pack.

He heard a low mumble from Liam's room. Liam was never an easy sleeper, he remembered from their sleepovers they had back when both of them still attended Devenford.

For a while, Liam was silent but then he began to start speaking in his sleep. Brett could easily hear him.

"No, please. Please don't hurt us," he heard Liam whimper. Concern filling him, he silently climbed out of bed and headed out of his room, standing in Liam's doorway.

"PLEASE DON'T HURT US, PLEASE. WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG," Liam began to scream, and panic began to take over Brett. Was he having nightmares about the assassins? Brett neared the bed, sitting down, in hopes of calming him down without waking him up.

"Liam... Liam, shh, it's okay, you're safe," he whispered, hoping Liam could hear him.

He began to violently thrash and Brett noticed he had half shifted, claws out. "Don't... don't hurt me please." He stopped speaking altogether and just screamed, thrashing in the bed.

Brett grasped his wrists tightly, holding them above the boy's head so he couldn't hurt anyone.

"Liam!" He yelled. "Liam, wake up!"

Liam's eyes snapped open, yellow and glowing. "Liam, you're okay. You're safe," he sighed, letting go of his wrists. "How long have you been having nightmares?" Liam sniffed, sitting up, slightly embarrassed Brett needed to wake him up.

"For a few weeks. They tried to burn us alive in the school," Liam mumbled as Brett pulled him into a comforting hug, completely contradicting his earlier statement. "It wouldn't go away, especially since the fact that my stupid printer," Liam glared at the printer at the end of his bed, "began printing the deadpool in the middle of the night, and my name went from 3 million to 18 million. I just..."

"Liam. Liam, breathe, it's okay. You don't have to worry about it. You're safe here. I'm here to help you, you're safe." He could still feel Liam shaking, his arms wrapped around his torso tightly.

They sat in that position for a while. Liam was the first one to move, and Brett let go of him. "Uh, just yell if you need me?" he suggested, scratching his head.

Liam looked down, fiddling with his blanket for a while.

"Actually," he began in a small voice, "Could you just stay here tonight?" Brett blinked, heartbeat rising a bit.

"Uh, yeah, sure..." he answered. Liam shifted over, and Brett awkwardly climbed into the bed. He knew it wasn't anything bad. Liam needed someone. Hell, if he was worth 3 million dollars and that suddenly changed to 18 million dollars overnight, he'd be terrified too.

Liam rolled over, staring into Brett's eyes. He probably should've felt uncomfortable, but he didn't. "Thanks Brett," he said, breaking the silence.

"Don't worry about. Goodnight Liam," Brett whispered back as the other boy closed his eyes. For once in what felt like a really long time, Brett finally managed to fall asleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how I feel about this, maybe a bit dragged out?? But I really wanted to write this. I think the idea came from several headcanons but I can't find them, sorry!  
> Dedicated to tumblr user [liamsdunbar (Nessa)](http://liamsdunbar.tumblr.com) because her blog is where I get Briam ideas honestly.  
> Check out [my tumblr](http://awlahey.tumblr.com)!


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